IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


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1.0 


I.I 


125 


US 

U2  Uii   112.2 

t   L£    12.0 

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«teu 


Photographic 

Sciences 

Corporation 


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23  WIST  MAIN  STRUT 

WnSTM.N.Y.  MSM 

(716)  •72-4503 


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ji<k 


CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHIVI/ICIVIH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiques 


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Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes/Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best 
original  copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this 
copy  which  may  be  bibliographically  unique, 
which  may  alter  any  of  the  images  in  the 
reproduction,  or  which  may  significantly  change 
the  usual  method  of  filming,  are  checked  below. 


D 


D 


D 
D 


□ 


D 


Coloured  covers/ 
Couverture  de  couleur 


I      I    Covers  damaged/ 


Couverture  endommag6e 

Covers  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Couverture  restaur6e  et/ou  pellicuiie 


I      I    Cover  title  missing/ 


Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 


□    Coloured  maps/ 
Cartes  g^ographiques  en  couleur 

□    Coloured  init  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)/ 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 

I      I    Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations/ 


Planches  et/ou  illustrations  en  couleur 

Bound  with  other  material/ 
Reli6  avec  d'autres  documents 

Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin/ 

La  re  liure  serrde  peut  causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la 
distortion  le  long  de  la  marge  intArieure 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restoration  may 
appear  within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these 
have  been  omitted  from  filming/ 
II  se  peut  que  certaines  pages  blanches  ajouties 
iors  d'une  restauration  apparaissent  dans  le  texte, 
mais,  lorsque  cela  itait  possible,  ces  pages  n'ont 
pas  6t6  filmies. 

Additional  comments:/ 
Commentaires  supplimentaires: 


L'lnstititt  a  microfilm*  le  meilleur  exemplaire 
qu'il  lui  a  At*  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details 
de  cet  exemplaire  qui  sont  peut-Atre  uniques  du 
point  de  vue  bibliographlque,  qui  peuvent  modifier 
une  image  reproduite,  ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une 
modification  dans  la  mAthode  normale  de  filmage 
sont  indiquAs  ci-dessous. 


I     I   Coloured  pages/ 


Pages  de  couleur 

Pages  damaged/ 
Pages  endommagtes 

Pages  restored  and/oi 

Pages  restaur^es  et/ou  pellicultes 

Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxei 
Pages  d6color6es,  tacheties  ou  piqutes 


r~>  Pages  damaged/ 

I — I   Pages  restored  and/or  laminated/ 

FyT  Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 


□   ?ages  detached/ 
Pages  ditach^es 

rry  Showthrough/ 
VlJ   Transparence 

I      I   Quality  of  print  varies/ 


Tl 
to 


Tl 

P< 
o1 
fil 


O 

b< 
til 
si 
ot 
fil 
si 
oi 


Quaiit6  indgaie  de  I'impression 

Includes  supplementary  material/ 
Comprend  du  materiel  suppKmentaire 

Only  edition  available/ 
Seule  Edition  disponible 


D 


Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc.,  have  t>een  refilmed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Les  pages  totalement  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata,  une  pelure, 
etc.,  ont  M  filmies  A  nouveau  de  fapon  A 
obtenir  la  meiileure  image  possible. 


This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ce  document  est  filme  au  taux  de  reduction  indiquA  ci-dessous. 


Tl 
si 
Tl 
w 

M 
di 
ei 
b4 

rl! 
ra 
m 


10X 

14X 

18X 

22X 

26X 

30X 

y 

12X 

16X 

aox 

a4x 

28X 

32X 

The  copy  filmed  here  has  been  reproduced  thanks 
to  the  generosity  of: 

Hamilton  Public  Ubrar/ 


The  images  appearing  here  are  the  best  quality 
possible  considering  the  condition  and  legibility 
of  the  original  copy  and  in  keeping  with  the 
filming  contrect  specifications. 


Original  copies  in  printed  paper  covers  are  filmed 
beginning  with  the  front  cover  and  ending  on 
the  last  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  Impres- 
sion, or  the  back  cover  when  appropriate.  All 
other  original  copies  are  filmed  beginning  on  the 
first  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, and  ending  on  the  last  page  with  a  printed 
or  illustrated  impression. 


The  last  recorded  frame  on  each  microfiche 
shall  contain  the  symbol  ^^  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  symbol  V  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  applies. 

Maps,  plates,  charts,  etc.,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  frames  as 
required.  The  following  diagrams  Illustrate  the 
method: 


1 

2 

3 

L'exemplaire  fiimA  f ut  reproduit  grAce  k  la 
gin^rositA  da: 

Hamilton  Public  Ubrary 


Les  images  suivantes  ont  At4  reproduites  avec  le 
plus  grand  soin,  compte  tenu  de  la  condition  et 
da  le  nettetA  de  rexemplaire  film*,  et  en 
conformity  avec  les  conditions  du  contrat  de 
filmage. 

Les  exemplaires  originoux  dont  la  couverture  en 
papier  est  ImprimAe  sont  filmAs  en  commen9ant 
par  le  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
derniire  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'iliustration,  soit  par  le  second 
plat,  salon  le  cas.  Tous  les  autres  exemplaires 
originaux  sont  filmte  en  commen^ent  par  la 
premlAre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'iliustration  et  en  terminant  per 
la  dernlAre  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 

Un  dee  symboles  suivants  apparattra  sur  la 
dernlAre  image  de  chaque  microfiche,  salon  le 
cas:  le  symbols  — ►  signifie  'A  SUIVRE",  le 
symbols  V  signifie  "FIN". 

Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  Atre 
filmte  A  des  taux  de  reduction  diff Arents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  Atre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  clichA,  il  est  filmA  A  partir 
de  I'angle  supArieur  gauche,  de  gauche  A  drolte, 
et  de  haut  en  bee,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  nAcessaire.  Les  diagrammes  suivants 
illustrent  la  mAthode. 


32X 


1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

1/ 


bTBUlTKHUL  LmUT  GomatEKI,  LOIDOI,  JPLTlMB,  181?. 


Htn, 


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THE   APPRAISAL  OP  LITERATURE. 


■A' 


"xi 


--'    f 


The  American  Library  Association  this  year  comes  of  age  and 
auspiciously  marks  the  event  by  crossing  the  Atlantic  to  exchange 
counsel  and  cheer  with  its  British  cousin.  At  such  a  season  a  word 
of  retrospect  may  be  in  order,  carrying  with  it,  as  it  must,  somewhat 
of  forecast. 

When  t]»^'Anierican  librarian  takes  a  backward  glance  as  far  as . 
'76,  and.qoiiSMts  what  he  was  able  to  do  then  with  what  he  can 
do  now,  he  finds  abuttdant  room  for  gratulation.  Every  passing  year 
has  ^leant  more  of  ucnefulness,  a  corresponding  growth  of  public  re^ 
gard.  Toward  this  happy  issue  influences  of  two  kinds  have  im^ 
pelled  faiip. 

!Fhe  first  of  these  influences  was  bom  with  the  Association  itself^ 
III  the  very  act  of  union  there  was  an  inevitable  strengthenin(^ 
of  hands.  At  the  yearly  musters  workers  from  lonely  outposts^ 
or  from  busy  centers  slow  to  acknowledge  the  claims  of  literature, 
have  been  comforted  and  inspired.  They  have  fpnnd  how  goodly 
the  army  in  which  they  were  enlisted.  Old  friendships  have  been 
qttickene4  tnd  deepened ;  new  fr^endphips,  soon  as  warm,  have  been 
kindled  #  every  gathering.  A  young  man»  just  across  the  threshold 
of  hit  profession,  would  bring  his  perplexities  with  trustees  or  alder- 
men to  the  sympathetic  ear  01  an  elder.     Forthwith  the  hill  Difl^culty 


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which  had  so  much  dismayed  him,  would  disclose  the  easiest  of  curves 
and  gentlest  of  gradients.  At  these  meetings,  too,  administrative 
details,  upon  which  so  much  of  success  may  turn,  have  year 
by  year  been  compared  and  discussed,  until  now  they  emerge  as  a 
tolerably  deer  code  of  practice.  There  is  substantial  agreement  to- 
day  as  to  how  our  buildings  should  be  constructed,  planned  and  fur- 
nished ;  how  books  should  be  selected,  classified  and  placed  in  the 
hands  of  the  public.  Meanwhile  the  publication  of  indexes,  bib- 
liographies, aiid  the  like,  has  gone  on  apace — aids  which  would 
never  have  seen  the  light  without  the  Association, to  create  them  and 
provide  their  market.  Alliances,  already  fruitful  and  big  with  promise, 
have  united  the  public  library  with  the  public  school,  the  art  gallery 
and  the  museum.  And  one  State  after  another  wheels  into  line  to 
form  a  chain  of  Library  Commissions,  soon  to  stretch,  let  us  hope, 
from  Maine  to  California.  How  much  all  this  would  astonish  the 
old-line  librarian  who  here  and  there  lingered  on  the  stage  of  '76  1  A 
grim  warder  of  alcoves  was  he,  grudgingly  dispensing  his  stores  to  a 
favored  few,  reluctance  in  his  step,  suspicion  in  his  eye.  To-day  we 
have  no  more  turnkeys  of  literature,  but  bankers  rather,  whose  capital 
is  accumulated  in  the  sole  aim  that  its  value  be  multiplied  fifty 'or  a 
hundred-fold  by  the  freest  using.  The  librarian's  doors  stand  open  ; 
he  all  but  compels  us  to  come  in.  Little  wonder  that  his  hospitality 
is  requited  by  the  heartiest  public  appreciation.  In  not  a  few  of  our 
towns  and  cities  the  public  library  is  the  acknowledged  center  of  in- 
tellectual life,  of  every  movement  which  stirs  the  once  separated  and 
removed  cream  of  culture  back  again  into  the  plain  people's  milk — to 
lenrich  their  toil,  to  sweeten  their  leisure,  to  lift  and  widen  their  out- 
llook.  Let  a  user  of  libraries,  who  owes  much  to  librarians,  here  add 
his  word  of  thanks  to  the  general  chorus. 

{      But  forces  other  than  those  active  within  the  profession  have  pro- 
foundly stirred  the  librarian's  pulse;  they  were  potent  enough  two 


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decades  ago,  to-day  they  are  simply  irresistible ;  they  move  under  the 
banner  of  Science.  It  is  science  applied  which  has  augmented  wealth 
and  so  diffused  education  that  the  ability  to  write  a  book — of  some 
kind  or  other — is  commoner  than  ever,  while  the  cost  of  the  making 
falls  lower  and  lower.  The  first  and  most  evident  result,  then,  of  the 
reign  of  science  is  to  engulf  the  librarian  in  a  flood-tide  of  printed 
matter  which  mounts  higher  and  sweeps  faster  every  twelve-month. 
In  the  United  States  alone  about  8o,ooo  new  books  or  new  editions 
have  been  published  since  '76.  To  pass  from  quantity  to  the  weightier 
matter  of  theme,  new  books  by  the  thousand  deal  with  subjects  barely 
recognized,  or  indeed  utterly  unimagined  twenty-one  years  ago.  Con- 
sider the  recent  advances  in  chemistry,  especially  in  its  single  depart- 
ment of  photography ;  bestow  a  glance  at  the  triumphs  of  bacteriology, 
with  its  new  defiance  of  disease  and  death.  In  '76  aluminum  was 
?till  made  into  jewelry,  to-day  electricity  gives  it  to  us  as  kitchenware. 
The  new  physics,  chemistry,  biology,  psychology  and  the  rest,  have 
been  won  in  large  measure  by  new  instruments  of  exquisite  ingenuity. 
These  sciences  converge  in  welding  a  body  of  scientific  method  in  itself 
incomparably  more  powerful  as  an  instrument  of  exploration  than  tele- 
phone, or  spectroscope,  or  Rontgen  bulb.  So  revolutionary  are  the 
victories  of  science  that  literature,  to  its  remotest  comer,  breathes  its 
ozone,  its  stimulus  to  scrupulous  exactitude,  to  unfaltering  faithfulness 
to  fact  directly  observed  and  patiently  interpreted.  Accordingly  we 
to-day  find  the  candor  once  rare  in  biography  steadily  growing  com- 
mon. Plain-speaking  certainly  wertt  its  full  length  last  year  in  Hare's 
"Story  of  My  Life,"  Hamerton's  autobiography,  and  Purcell's 
"  Life  of  Cardinal  Manning."  As  a  shining  example  of  the  modem 
historian  take  Francis  Parkman.  With  toil  unwearied,  and  at  an  out- 
lay only  to  be  met  by  a  private  fortune,  he  gathered  the  documents 
upon  which  his  work?  were  based.  These  documents,  open  to  his 
critics,  are  in  the  library  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  in 


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Boston.  Mr.  Parkman  visited  every  town  and  hamlet  which  he  has 
described.  Frequently  in  the  foreground  of  his  canvas  are  Indian 
chiefs  and  tribes;  wherever  their  descendants  survived,  he  sought 
familiar  acquaintance  with  them.  Hence  he  gives  us  those  minor 
traits  of  race  that  ut  detected  only  in  close  and  sympathetic  scrutiny, 
together  with  the  traditions,  the  fringe  and  tassel  of  custom,  never  to 
be  conveyed  in  second-hand  impressions.  Whether  such  a  man  as 
Parkman  devotes  his  life  to  the  telescope,  the  test-tube,  or  the  pen, 
equally  is  he  the  servant  of  truth. 

Turn  we  for  a  moment  to  the  novelist  and  we  shall  see  him  bowing 
to  the  new  scepter,  for  all  that  his  imagination  is  as  chainless  as  ever. 
There  is  Stevenson,  in  his  last  days  at  Samoa,  penning  his  strongest 
romance,  "Weir  of  Hermiston,"  and  minded  to  try  Archie  Weir  on 
a  charge  of  murder  elsewhere  than  at  Edinburgh.  But  could  he  do 
so  with  truth  ?  He  deemed  it  incumbent  to  question  a  legal  friend  in 
faraway  Scotland.  The  response,  with  its  detail  of  time,  court  and 
place  delighted  him  ;  all  was  reserved  for  fullest  use.  Introducing  a 
fact  as  a  fact,  novelists  before  Stevenson  have  been  careful,  but  hia 
scrupulous  anxiety  is  quite  characteristic  of  a  day  when  chemists  are 
engaged  on  analyses  true  to  the  fifty-thousandth  part,  by  the  help  of 
scales  freely  turning  with  a  half-millionth  of  their  load.  And  what 
does  Naturalism,  that  scrofulous  offspring  of  Realism,  attempt  but 
to  tell  the  truth  about  the  gutter  and  the  sty  ?  And  further,  if  we 
refresh  ourselves  in  peering  for  a  moment  over  the  fence  that  divides 
letters  from  art,  we  shall  again  see  the  dominion  of  the  spirit  which 
makes  for  reality,  for  immediate  impressions,  for  consent  between 
partners  too  long  at  cross  purposes.  Observe  Seymour-Hadea  as  he 
etches  a  landscape,  not  from  a  sketch  in  the  seclusion  of  his  studio, 
but  at  the  very  brookside  itself.  See  Timothy  Cole  in  the  presence  of 
the  masterpieces  of  Da  Vinci  and  Raphael  translating  their  ineffable 
beauty  on  the  block  before  him.     Note  Meissonier  as  he  correctSr  his. 


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drawings  of  the  horse  at  full  gallop  with  the  aid  of  an  eye  swifter  and 
surer  than  his  own,  that  of  the  instantaneous  camera.  Listen  to 
Wagner,  who,  beginning  his  career  when  an  opera  was  formed  of  a 
libretto  and  a  score  that  looked  askance  at  each  other,  gives  us  at  last 
the  music-drama  in  which  sound  echoes  sense,  in  which  language 
and  music  but  interpret  and  exalt  each  other. 

To  return  to  the  library.  It  is  of  course  in  the  field  of  its  own 
literature  that  the  compulsions  of  science  chiefly  appear.  A  little 
more  than  a  century  ago  Oliver  Goldsmith  could  indite  a  "History 
of  Animated  Nature,"  not  because  he  knew  more  than  his  neighbors 
about  animated  Nature,  but  because  he  could  re-state  the  writings  of 
others — themselves  perhaps  borrowers — with  fluent  grace.  To-day 
for  the  task  he  assumed  so  light  of  heart,  how  elaborate  would  be  the 
attack  I  First  of  all  would  be  installed,  as  editor-in-chief,  a  naturalist 
whose  mastery  of  a  particular  branch  of  natural  history  had  brought 
maturity  of  judgment  as  to  work  in  other  branches.  Around  him 
would  be  assembled  a  corps  of  specialists,  each  a  man  of  wide  and 
and  thorough  familiarity  with  birds  or  insects,  beasts  or  fish.  Every 
chapter  would  be  copiously  illustrated  by  the  camera.  The  multi- 
tudinous facts  of  form,  color  and  habit  would  be  threaded  upon  clue- 
lines  of  cause  and  law,  while  philosophy  would  redeem,  for  illustration 
and  instance,  every  jot  and  tittle  of  detail  otherwise  oppressive  through 
sheer  mass  and  variety.  The  naturalists  of  Goldsmith's  day  looked 
upon  Nature  as  a  tableau  disposed  by  the  Master  long  ago,  to  stand 
unchanged  forever.  The  naturalists  of  our  time  show  us  that  in 
truth  Nature  is  a  drama,— of  shifting  scenes,  of  personalities  mutable 
to  the  very  core,  molded  by  forces  as  coercive  now  as  in  the  illimitable 
past  A  change  of  view  surely  no  more  significant  for  science  than 
for  its  twin  phase  of  reality,  literature. 

Those  historiiins-in-the-large,  the  evolutionists,  tell  us  that  chief 
among  the  Acuities  of  mind  which  have  lifted  man  from  brute  are 


•#'. 


■■■■i 


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6 


those  which  flower  in  language.  Golden  though  the  spoken  or  writ- 
ten word  may  be,  immeasurable  harm  has  been  done  by  its  permitted 
usurpations.  Too  often  the  writer  who  should  first  have  been  an  ob- 
server, an  explorer,  a  doer,  has  been  but  a  scribe,  putting  forth  with  a 
scribe's  lack  of  authority  the  distortions  of  hearsay,  the  unavoidable 
falsities  of  second  or  third  hand  impressions.  Why  does  so  dreary  a 
desert  separate  the  science  of  Aristotle  from  the  science  of  Galileo  and 
his  compeers  of  the  Renaissance — a  desert  across  which  commentator 
and  disputant  flit,  one  after  another,  all  with  empty  hands  ?  Simply 
because  Aristotle  was  followed  only  in  the  repetition  and  discussion  of 
what  he  had  said,  not  in  his  direct  appeal  to  fact  Only  when  Nature 
was  probed  anew  in  his  own  fearless  way  did  the  reign  of  the  school- 
men come  to  an  end,  did  man  enter  upon  his  modern  comprehension 
of  Nature,  the  new  mastery  of  his  fate.  We  have  only  to  turn  the 
pages  of  metaphysical  abstraction  to  come  upon  words  that  float  in  a 
serene  detachment  from  real  things,  from  genuine  thoughts,  words 
independent  of  the  solid  earth,  and  useless  there.  In  the  juvenile 
debating  clubs  of  the  last  generation  a  favorite  question  was,  "  Is  the 
pen  mightier  than  the  sword  ? "  Commanders  all  the  way  from  Julius 
Caesar  to  General  Grant  have  demonstrated  that  the  pen  is  never 
mightier  than  when  the  sword  has  been  laid  down  that  the  pen  might 
be  taken  up.  And  in  other  fields  than  those  of  war  the  pen  has  might 
only  because  the  chisel  or  the  brush,  the  scalpel  or  the  lens,  has  been 
exchanged  for  it  To-day,  therefore,  we  find  the  desk  set  up  in  the 
workshop,  the  studio,  the  laboratory,  with  incalculable  profit  to  litera- 
ture. The  new  books  of  science  gain  by  qualifications,  exceptions, 
side-lights  from  bafflement  and  failure  a  value  incomparably  greater 
than  was  possible  in  the  recent  days  which  it  is  no  disrespect  to  call 
pre-scientific.  Thus  draws  to  its  term  the  ancient  discord  between 
theory  and  practice:  theory  takes  on  modification  and  limit  in  the  face 
of  the  complexities  which  it  is  the  darling  vice  of  language  to  ignore 


,1 


or  over-simplify.  Practice,  enlightened  by  generalization,  passes  from 
the  rule  of  thumb  to  the  sway  of  law.  By  virtue,  too,  of  a  knowledge 
which  comprehends  many  a  distant  province  of  truth  there  spring  up 
what  Clerk  Maxwell  happily  called  the  cross-fertilizations  of  science. 
The  physicist  has  only  to  dig  deep  enough  to  find  that  the  chemist  and 
himself  occupy  common  ground.  Delve  from  the  surface  of  your 
sphere  to  its  heart,  and  your  radius  at  once  joins  every  other.  Mark 
Sir  Archibald  Geikie  as  in  his  "Geology"  he  cheerfully  lays  hands  on 
whatthe  physicist  and  chemist,  the  astronomer  and  meteorologist,  might 
once  have  regarded  as  estates  exclusively  their  own.  Behold,  also,  the 
fruitful  reaction  of  adequate  records  upon  invention  and  discovery  as 
they  march  to  new  victories.  Visit  Mr.  Edison,  and  you  will  find  his 
library  as  generously  equipped  as  his  laboratory. 

Perhaps  in  no  part  of  our  modern  life  is  the  new  adjustment  of 
words  and  deeds  more  telling  than  in  education.  In  our  best  schools, 
all  the  way  from  the  kindergarten  to  the  university,  books  are  being 
gradually  withdrawn  from  work  they  should  never  have  been  allowed 
to  perform.  No  longer  is  memorizing  the  printed  page  the  be-all  and 
the  end-all  of  instruction.  Anything  that  should  be  observed  is  ob- 
served; anything  that  should  be  done  is  done  instead  of  being  merely 
talked  or  written  about.  Books  come  in  for  reference,  for  direction, 
as  means  of  continuous  explanation,  as  sources  of  knowledge  con- 
cerning observations,  experiments,  generalizations  far  beyond  the 
horizon  of  the  student.  Restricted  thus  to  its  rightful  sphere  a 
book  rises  to  a  utility,  because  it  has  a  truth  it  could  not  know 
when  the  Word  was  a  substitute  for  the  Act,  instead  of  being  its 
complement. 

In  those  wider  spheres  of  letters  whose  aim  is  recreation,  charm, 
inspiration,  there  is  obedience  to  the  same  tidal  impulses.  We  have  a 
fiction  as  true  in  essence  as  history;  a  body  of  poetry  as  rightly  echo- 
ing the  perplexities  and  aspirations  of  our  age  as  the  pages  of  a  cau- 


im 


tious  annalist  may  record  the  commonplaces  of  trade  and  treaty. 
The  novelist,  the  dramatist,  the  essayist,  all  the  wrriters  who  are  the 
servants  of  Beauty,  are  to-day  effectively  so  in  proportion  to  their  al- 
lef^iance  to  Truth.  Thus  are  the  standards  of  literary  criticism 
heightened  and  sharpened  by  that  world-movement  whose  citadel  is 
science,  whose  conquests  are  arrayed  in  provinces  of  new  knowledge 
such  as  no  thousand  years  before  our  century  ever  won. 

The  motto  of  the  American  Library  Association  is,  "The  best 
reading  for  the  largest  number  at  the  least  cost."  But  how  shall  we 
know  what  part  of  the  enormous  mass  of  modern  reading  is  best,  and 
what  other  part,  while  not  best,  is  still  useful  enough  to  repay  the  reader 
or  student?  You  may  tell  me  that  reviewing  is  a  somewhat  ancient 
institution,  that  from  among  the  criticisms  which  appear  anony- 
mously in  such  a  journal  as  the  Nation,  of  New  York,  or  under  signa- 
tures in  such  periodicals  as  the  American  Historical  Review  and  the 
Political  Science  Quarterly  there  is  much  to  meet  our  want.  But  such 
reviews,  good  as  they  are,  do  not  fill  the  need  of  the  librarian's  public; 
commonly  they  are  too  long,  too  discursive;  how  shall  they  be  readily 
found  when  wanted  ?  What  is  needed  is  a  brief  note  of  description, 
criticism  and  comparison,  written  hy  an  acknowledged  authority, 
signed  and  dated,  and  placed  where  the  reader  cannot  help  seeing  it, 
both  within  the  lid  of  the  reviewed  book  itself  and  on  a  card  next  the 
title-card  in  the  catalogue — it  being  assumed  that  according  to  the 
practice  more  and  more  prevailing  in  America  a  card  catalogue  is 
freely  accessible  to  all.  If  a  book  treats  of  a  question  in  debate,  as 
socialism  or  bimetallism,  fact  and  opinion  should  be  carefully  distin- 
guished, and  views  of  opposed  critics  might  be  presented.  By  this 
means  the  inquirer  would  know  which  book  is  best,  or  among  the  best 
of  its  kind;  he  would  be  made  aware  of  the  defects  which  mar  even 
the  best  books;  he  would  learn  how  one  work  can  gainfully  piece  out 
another,  and  would  gather  indication  of  the  periodicals,  or  transac- 


■' 


:> 


tions  which  bring  a  story  of  discovery  or  research  down  to  date.     In 
a  final  line  he  might  be  told  where  detailed  reviews  are  to  be  found. 

And  where  shall  we  find  the  persons  qualified  to  undertake  all  this 
arduous  business  of  appraisal  ?  Chiefly,  I  think,  in  the  ranks  of  pro- 
fessional reviewers.  Many  of  these  are  busy  in  class-rooms,  bringing 
books  daily  to  the  severest  tests  of  experiment  and  study.  Let  them 
go  on  writing  reviews  of  customary  length  for  their  present  employers, 
and  let  them  also  boil  down  these  reviews  for  us.  Wherever  neces- 
sary, other  critics,  skilled  foi  th?  service  we  require,  may  lend  their 
aid.  Thus  shall  the  seeker  and  Je  knower  be  brought  together;  thus 
may  everyone  who  enters  a  public  library  have  at  his  elbow  competent 
and  trustworthy  pilots  thn  ^^h  the  swirluig  sea  of  literature.  Instruc- 
tion or  recreation  may  then  be  pursued  with  the  utmost  effect  and 
pleasure, because  .vith  the  sound'.st  available  intelligence.  Of  course, 
this  aid  should  not  be  confmed  to  the  literature  of  utility:  why  should 
pleasure  in  fiction,  or  de//es  leUres,  be  flabby  when  it  can  so  easily 
be  hearty? 

Fiction,  indeed,  in  the  circulation  of  some  of  our  libraries  rises  to 
a  figure  exceeding  80  per  cent.  With  ihis  fact  in  mind,  and  believing 
a  large  part  of  the  fiction  to  be  poor  stuff,  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith  im- 
pugns the  whole  principle  of  supporting  free  libraries  out  of  the  public 
treasury.  "  People,"  he  says,  *'  have  no  more  right  to  novels  than  to 
theatre  tickets  out  of  the  public  taxes."  The  point  of  his  objection 
can  be  turned  only  in  one  way,— by  seeing  to  it  that  only  good  fiction 
is  placed  upon  the  shelves.  Exclusion,  courageous  and  tactful  must 
be  the  policy  here.  Mr.  W.  M.  Stevenson,  librarian  of  the  Carnegie 
Library,  Allegheny,  Pennsylvania,  has  dropped  from  his  catalogue  a 
round  of  novels  popular  enough,  but  lacking  literary  merit.  To  the 
demand.  Why  cannot  we  have  what  we  like,  instead  of  what  yon  think 
we  ought  to  like  ?  the  answer  must  be,  read  Austen,  Cooper,  Scott, 
Thackeray,   Dickens,  Hawthorne  and  Stevenson,  and  you  will   soon 


10 


I 

•i 

_  *  I 


thank  us  for  v  Ithholding  Mrs.  Holmes  and  Mr.  Roe,  your  appetite 
for  their  screeds  being  irrecoverably  lost.  Reading,  for  all  that 
Dogberry  may  say,  does  not  come  by  nature;  neither,  when  the  art 
of  reading  is  acquired,  is  it  spontaneously  partnered  with  power  to 
choose  the  most  gainful  and  pleasure-giving  books.  Just  as  fast  as  the 
school  educates  the  public  in  the  intelligent  choice  of  literature,  with 
equal  pace  will  vanish  the  charge  that  the  public  library  does  aught 
but  public  good.  There  is  a  difficulty  much  more  serious  than  that 
of  wishy-washy  fiction,  with  regard  to  novels  of  the  Satanic  school, 
deliberately  produced  to  contaminate.  Against  these  it  is  high  time 
that  danger  signals  were  set  up,  so  that  neither  carelessness  nor 
accident  may  allow  their  intrusion. 

The  steps  taken  in  America  toward  engaging  the  best  available 
guidance  for  readers  and  students  in  our  public  libraries  are  briefly 
these :  About  twenty  years  ago  Professor  W.  G.  Sumner,  of  Yale 
University,  drew  up  for  his  classes  a  short  list  of  works  on  political 
economy,  with  notes.  This  list,  enlarged  to  an  annotated  pamphlet 
of  thirty-six  pages,  was  soon  after  published  in  New  York  by  the  So- 
ciety for  Political  Education.  The  pamphlet  was  favorably  received, 
and  when  it  passed  out  of  print  a  widespread  demand  arose  for  its 
re-issue  in  expanded  form.  Accordingly,  the  "Reader's  Guide  in 
Economic,  Social  and  Political  Literature,"  a  book  of  some  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  pages,  was  issued  in  189 1.  In  its  preparation  the  edit- 
ors, Mr.  R.  R.  Bowker  and  myself,  were  assisted  by  a  score  of  represen- 
tative American  and  English  specialists.  The  "Guide"  met  with  a 
warm  reception  ;  copies  of  it  are  to  be  seen  in  college  libraries  thumbed 
almost  to  tatters  ;  to  this  day  it  is  doing  good  service  in  hundreds  of 
editorial  offices,  class  rooms  and  public  libraries  :  an  appendix  to  it 
may  appear  next  year.  The  next  demand  for  an  annotated  bibliog- 
raphy came  from  the  clubs  of  girls  and  women,  which  are  constantly 
increasing  in  number  and  importance,  and  are  establishing  libraries 


te 
at 
rt 
;o 

le 
h 
It 
It 
> 

B 

r 


by  scores  every  mc.^th.  To  meet  this  need,  Mrs.  Augusta  H.  Ley- 
poldt,  editor  of  the  Literary  News,  New  York,  and  myself  edited 
two  years  ago,  for  the  American  Library  Association,  "A  List  of 
Books  for  Girls  and  Women  and  Their  Clubs."  This  bibliography 
comprises  2,100  titles  in  the  leading  branches  of  literature.  Each 
of  its  departments  was  contributed  by  a  man  or  woman  of  authority. 
Although  specifically  addressed  to  girls  and  women,  and  setting  forth 
especially  the  books  which  deal  with  their  livelihoods  and  home  toil, 
the  "  List  "  in  the  main  is  as  useful  to  boys  and  men  as  to  their  sis- 
ters and  mothers.  The  notes  on  good  literature  which  chiefly  fill  it 
appeal  to  all  readers.  Take  an  example  of  its  usefulness  :  Wiscon- 
sin is  an  agricultural  State,  with  a  population  for  the  most  part  cen- 
tered in  smiU  towns  and  /illages.  The  chairman  of  the  Stfte  Library 
Commission,  Mr.  F.  A.  Hutchins,  writes  that  the  "List"  has 
doubled  and  quadrupled  the  purchasing  power  of  the  few  dollars 
usually  available  in  forming  or  extending  small  libraries.  In  Mil- 
waukee, much  the  largest  city  in  the  State,  the  question  might  be  : 
Which  is  the  best  exposition  of  Browning's  "The  Ring  and  the 
Book  "  ?  But  what  the  village  of  Fox  Lake  wants  to  know  is  ;  Which 
are  Dickens'  six  best  books,  and  which  are  the  best  editions  for  six 
dollars  ? 

Two  departments  of  the  "Lists  for  Girls  and  Women"  proved 
particularly  helpful— that  of  Fine  Art,  by  Mr.  Russell  Sturgis,  and  that 
of  Music,  by  Mr.  H.  E.  Krehbiel.  Accordingly,  these  two  critics,  each 
a  master  in  his  field,  were  engaged  for  a  fairly  full  bibliography  of 
Fine  Art,  about  one  thousand  titles  in  all.  This  work,  which  I 
edited,  also  issued  by  the  American  Library  Association,  appeared 
March,  1897,  and  has  thus  far  met  with  a  gratifying  reception.  How- 
ever much  we  may  wish  to  see  notes  of  appraisal  printed  on  cata- 
logue cards,  it  will  always  be  desirable  to  give  book-form  as  well  to 
such  notes  as  those  of  Mr.  Sturgis  and  Mr.  Krehbiel.     Only  thus  can 


i! 


the  reader  take  connected  views  of  his  subject,  observe  the  canons  of 
criticism  in  their  broad  application,  and  gather  those  suggestions 
which  teem  from  a  richly  freighted  mind  as,  in  one  masterly  effort, 
it  passes  upon  a  whole  literature  from  the  first  noteworthy  volume  to 
the  last.  The  next  task  of  the  American  Library  Association,  in  the 
way  of  appraisal,  will  probably  be  a  bibliography  of  American  His- 
tory. A  scholar  of  the  highest  competence  has  said  that  if  possible  he 
will  act  as  its  editor-in-chief,  giving  his  services  gratuitously.  An 
attempt  will  be  made  to  issue  its  notes  in  both  book  and  card  form. 
Following  this  task  we  hope  to  issue  a  bibliography  of  applied 
science-;  for  its  departments  we  are  already  volunteered  the  aid  of 
several  contributors  of  mark.  What  I  should  like  to  see  would  be  a 
series  of  bibliographies  covering  with  tolerable  completeness  the 
whole  round  of  literature,  and  comprising  a  selection  of  about  ten 
thousand  works.  With  these  as  a  basis  we  might  enlist  our  contrib- 
utors for  the  appraisal  of  every  noteworthy  book  as  it  leaves  the  press, 
distributmg  the  notes  on  cards.  In  Boston  is  an  agency  of  the  Pub- 
lishing Section  of  the  American  Library  Association  which  selects 
from  current  literature  and  issues  title-cards  for  a  circle  of  subscrib- 
ing libraries — this  with  a  view  to  introducing  uniformity,  and  of  pay- 
ing one  printer  instead  of  fifty.  By  adding  notes  of  appraisal  in  the 
future,  the  value  of  this  service  could  be  vastly  heightened. 

What  our  Publishing  Section  is  clearly  moving  toward  is  the  foun- 
dation of  a  Central  Superintendency  (the  title  Library  Bureau  is  pre- 
empted) which  shall  oversee  this  whole  business  of  appraisal,  of  en- 
tering into  relations  with  the  plans,  now  international  in  scope,  for 
indexing  scientific  and  other  literature,  which  shall  make  it  easy 
to  establish  new  libraries  on  sound  lines,  and  to  extend  exist- 
ing libraries  with  the  utmost  economy  and  efficiency.  From  the 
work  of  such  a  superintendency  manifold  gain  would  arise.  Through- 
out America  there  are  constantly  appearing  annotated  lists  of  works 


.A 


>ri«dAar:£<ii«kdMMUM 


13 


on  economics  and  history,  folklore  and  what  not.  The  labor  which 
goes  into  their  production,  much  of  it  duplicated,  and  all  of  it  local, 
both  in  origin  and  utility,  might  easily  be  organized  for  the  service  of 
the  whole  country,  with  a  decided  improvement  in  quality,  a  saving 
in  time  and  strength.  A  systematic  effort  might  also  be  made  to  res- 
cue from  neglect  the  great  books  which,  from  such  causes  as  the  un- 
timely death  of  their  authors,  or  the  sheer  brunt  of  advertisement  are 
overlaid  by  new  and  much  inferior  writing.  To  a  competent  hand 
might  be  committed,  for  example,  the  sifting  out  all  that  still  retains 
worth  and  interest  in  Bagehot,  who  was  at  once  an  economist, 
a  wit,  and  a  literary  critic  of  distinction.  Much  that  he  wrote  was 
for  his  own  day;  mnoh  remains  of  the  rarest  value  for  our  day. 
What  is  true  of  Bagehot  is  true  of  Jevons,  and  of  many  more.  We 
are  not  so  much  concerned  about  the  newest  books  as  about  the  best. 
Much  might  be  done,  also,  in  bestowing  upon  boys  and  girls  a  thor- 
ough familiarity  with  the  great  classics.  Here  our  hope  lies  in  school- 
libraries,  chosen  with  the  most  enlightened  care.  There  are,  let  us 
say,  fifty  books  which  every  one  should  read  between  his  tenth  year 
and  his  fifteenth ;  let  us  enlist  "  the  consensus  of  the  competent "  in 
*  drawing  up  a  list  of  these  works,  and  then  by  creating  a  demand  for 
good  and  cheap  editions  stimulate  to  the  full,  not  simply  acquaint- 
ance, but  intimacy  with  the  masterpieces  of  all  time.  A  minor  ser- 
vice, well  worth  rendering,  is  in  pointing  out  which  books  of  the  vo- 
luminous masters  are  best  worth  having.  Not  more  than  half  Scott's 
are,  and  perhaps  not  so  large  a  fraction  of  Cooper's.  Publishers  are 
interested  in  supplying  complete  sets  ;  we  desire  to  see  small  libraries 
expend  their  few  dollars  for  the  best  choice  possible.   • 

No  one  has  gone  very  far  in  bibliography  without  discovering 
many  gaps  even  in  copious  literatures.  In  the  Atlaniic  Monthly  for 
June,  1893,  Mr.  Justin  Winsor  described  the  Soci6t6  Franklin,  of 
Paris,  which  acts  as  a  central  agency  for  the  libraries  of  France:  it  has 


r 


1  K. 


IM 


u 

found  that  with  an  assured  sale  for  its  round  of  libraries,  a  trained 
writer  and  a  responsible  publisher  can  be  engaged  to  supply  any 
needed  book.  This  plan  avoids  the  heavy  tax  for  advertising  inex- 
orable when  a  new  book  lacks  an  organized  circle  of  buyers:  in  the 
ordinary  practice  of  publishing  the  odd  purchaser  here  and  there,  hit 
through  the  press,  wellnigh  costs  his  weight  in  ammunition.  When 
the  "  List  for  Girls  and  Women  "  was  being  edited,  it  became  clear 
that  however  imperious  the  voice  of  science  may  be  upstairs,  its  echoes 
in  the  kitchen  are  rumblings  of  the  faintest.  Scarcely  one  cook-book 
in  a  hundred  recognizes  that  cooking  is  a  branch  of  chemistry,  having 
vital  relations  as  well  with  physiology  and  economics.  In  the  col- 
leges where  domestic  economy  is  taught  I  have  been  informed  that  its 
themes,  in  their  scientific  treatment  still  in  the  experimental  stage,  are 
as  yet  not  crystallized  into  literature.  In  this  department  of  house- 
hold well-being  take  a  singular  example  of  a  lack  where  one  would 
expect  repletion.  For  years  the  electric-light  companies  have  waged 
war  upon  the  gas  interest:  one  would  suppose  that  the  fight  would 
give  us  many  a  good  pamphlet  on  the  incandescent  mantle  which 
multiplies  the  light  from  gas,  on  the  ventilating  fixture  which  has 
the  chief  merit  of  the  electric  bulb,  on  the  multifarious  uses  of  gas  for* 
cooking,  heating  and  manufacturing.  Yet  not  a  page  on  the  subject 
could  I  find  published  in  America  two  years  ago.  Nor  could  I  dis- 
cover any  succinct,  connected  description  of  the  scores  of  ingenious 
devices  for  relieving  household  drudgery  which  attract  the  eye  at 
every  American  fair.  Nor,  as  far  as  I  know,  is  there  to  this  day  any 
brief  account  of  the  principles  which  underlie  the  judicious  care  of 
property,  a  matter  of  prime  importance,  especially  to  women  who 
may  inherit  an  estate  with  little  qualification  for  its  guardianship. 
The  fact  is,  publishing  is  a  somewhat  haphazard  business,  and  libra- 
rians organized  for  the  public  behoof  can  on  occasion  do  something  to 
supply  a  declared  want  for  a  pamphlet  or  a  book.     Every  twelve- 


'f 


16 

month  sees  works  on  Rhetoric,  Botany,  Geometry,  tumbling  from  the 
press  by  the  score ;  but  scarcely  ever  a  book  to  tell  ordinary  peorie 
an  acceptable  word  about  the  sciences  of  food  and  clothing,  shelter 
and  health.  Much  is  said,  and  truly,  about  the  claims  of  original  re- 
search ;  much,  with  equal  truth,  may  be  said  for  giving  knowledge 
already  acquired,  the  widest  diffusion. 

Here  a  word  of  caution  must  be  spoken.  Easy  it  is  to  say  that  a 
book  is  needed  ;  it  may  be  impossible  to  lay  hands  upon  the  writer 
who  should  give  it  to  the  world.  Why  is  there  no  American  work  on 
zoology  as  sound  and  good  as  that  on  botany  by  Asa  Gray  ?  Because 
America  has  no  zoologist  the  size  of  Asa  Gray.  Literature  lacks  a 
comprehensive  work  on  American  forestry ;  but  think  of  the  extent 
and  variety  of  American  forests  ;  so  recently  has  their  systematic  study 
been  begun  that  the  first  American  to  be  thoroughly  trained  and 
equipped  for  the  task  is  still  a  young  man. 

To  sum  up  :  on  one  side  stands  the  great  public  encompassed  by 
mountains  of  books  rising  ever  higher  and  higher ;  on  the  other  side 
stand  the  critics  who  know  which  of  these  books  are  best,  which  are 
merely  good,  or  offer  here  and  there  a  helpful  chapter  or  page.  It  is 
plainly  time  that  these  critics  were  judiciously  organized  by  librarians 
for  the  aid  and  comfort  of  the  great  public  who  read  or  study,  or  may 
be  induced  to  read  or  study.  The  spirit  of  science  has  entered  the 
world  of  letters,  but  in  more  than  one  province  of  its  empire  there  is 
sturdy  resistance  to  its  sway  :  an  echo  is  still  heard  where  there  should 
only  be  a  voice.  Let  every  movement  that  makes  for  accuracy, 
sincerity,  truth  in  literature,  be  generously  and  wisely  promoted,  and 
in  the  only  possible  way,  by  organization  with  its  attendant  boons  of 
economy  and  scope.  In  these  latter  days  of  democracy  culture  ceases 
to  be  the  possession  of  a  caste,  of  a  class  apart,  and  works  as  a  leaven 
throughout  the  whole  mass  of  the  people.  To-day  workmen  and 
clerks  listen  to  the  university  lecturer ;  the  great  art  of  the  present 


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and  the  past  m^rates  from  the  metropolitan  museum  to  tiift  sufanrbili 
hall ;  in  the  concert>room  Beethoven  and  Bach  are  now  appealing  li. 
the  million  instead  of  the  Upper  ten  thousand.  So  also  in  the  field" 
of  literature ;  the  records  of  the  best  that  has  been  tf  tought  and  done 
in  the  world  grow  in  volume  and  value  every  hour.  Speed  the  <i([^ 
when  they  may  be  hospitably  proffered  to  every  human  s6ul,  the  chaff 
winnowed  from  the  wheat,  the  gold  divided  from  the  clay. 

GEORGE  ILES. 
New  York,  June,  1897. 


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